ITALY DEFENDS ITS NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY

C O N F I D E N T I A L ROME 003969

SIPDIS


NEA/ENA PLEASE PASS TO TRIPOLI

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/14/2009
TAGS: ELAB PHUM PREL PREF IT LY EUN
SUBJECT: ITALY DEFENDS ITS NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY

REF: ROME 3968

Classified By: POL M/C TOM COUNTRYMAN FOR REASONS 1.5 (b)(d)


1. (C) Summary: Faced with a political imperative to stop
waves of illegal immigrants, the Italian government has
stepped up cooperation with Libya and adopted a policy of
quickly returning to Libya immigrants who land illegally in
Sicily. Responding to UN, NGO and opposition criticism,
Italian officials stress they are continuing to provide
immigrants with emergency assistance and are processing
asylum requests. Given the lack of a unified EU policy on
immigration, Italian officials believe they have no choice
but to act to protect their borders. End Summary.


2. (C) In a meeting with Laborcouns October 11, Giuseppe
Moscato, Diplomatic Advisor to the Minister of Interior, laid
out the government's vision for dealing with the immigration
crisis. He provided official figures that reveal the scope
of the problem. Between September 29 and October 7, 1,787
illegal immigrants (including 1,119 Egyptians, 11 Moroccans,
23 Bangladeshis) arrived in Lampedusa; of these 1,153 were
returned to Libya on commercial and military charter flights
paid for by the Italian government. Another 544 immigrants
were sent to various processing centers; of these, 181
received a temporary permit to stay; 122 were awaiting a
permit; 140 have indicated a desire for asylum; another 101
were awaiting processing. According to a statement by
Interior Minister Pisanu, UNHCR representatives were
initially denied entry to the Lampedusa facility until the
government was able to establish some order; a center
designed to house 186 people had been overwhelmed by 1,200
immigrants.

Bilateral Agreements
--------------


3. (C) Moscato stressed that Italy's first priority was to
provide emergency food, health care and clothing to the
immigrants who arrive. But he stated that Italy needs to
take preemptive action beyond its borders to stop the growing
tidal wave of immigrants, especially from African countries.
Hence, the recent agreement with Tripoli to provide the
Libyan immigration services with training and equipment to
better control its borders before immigrants set sail for
Italy. The training would include courses on how to identify
false documents, how to screen for explosives and drugs, and
how to form border patrols. Now that the EU has lifted its
embargo, Italy will be able to provide equipment such as
jeeps and surveillance equipment. Moscato noted that Libya
had a very long shopping list, not all of which would be
filled. Libya continued to be very cooperative but Rome was
having difficulty dealing with Tripoli's idea of pan-Arab or
pan-African unity, concepts that prevented the kind of visa
controls and border security measures typical in Europe. The
agreement also provides for Libya to accept Italian flights
of immigrants who are being quickly returned toLibya upon
arrival in Sicily.


4. (C) A imilar Italian program in Albania (which include
stationing Italian Coast Guard vessels in Alanian ports)
significantly reduced the number of Albanian refugees
reaching Italy over the last few years, according to Moscato.
The majority of recent arrivals via Libya were Egyptians
(many claiming to be Palestinian); to date, Moscato said that
Rome's efforts to convince Egypt to control its borders have
been unsuccessful. He expected that Italian officials would
raise the immigration issue with President Mubarak during his
visit to Rome this week. In his discussions with the
Libyans, Pisanu has stressed the dangers of immigrants with
terrorist connections who bring "disease and social disorder"
to Libya. Moscato believes the majority of boat crossings
are organized by criminal groups charging $1,000-2,000 to
deliver each immigrant to Sicilian shores. The new,
well-publicized policy of quick return will, he believed,
discourage other immigrants from wasting their money on a
futile effort.

A "Global" Issue
--------------


5. (C) Despite bilateral efforts, Moscato emphasized that the
long-term answer to the immigration problem would require
broad cooperation among EU countries and beyond, perhaps

between the EU and the Organization for African Union.
Poverty rates in Africa were growing and, ultimately,
stopping the refugee flow would require increased
developmental aid to the poorer nations. He lamented the
fact that so much EU funding is focused on cultural programs
rather than development aid to combat what he considered a
core security concern for Europe. Also necessary, according
to Moscato, was a new system of immigration quotas for both
individual EU countries and the community as a whole. A
regularized system of legal immigration would, he believed,
reduce pressure for illegal immigrants, discourage organized
crime and regularize the flow of workers from Africa but also
Asia and South America. He noted that the EU should be
concerned about discouraging immigration from Africa because
many new arrivals migrate from Italy to the rest of the EU.
However, he was not optimistic that the EU would adopt a
unified approach to immigration because of the many
conflicting concerns of member states. Northern tier
countries were concerned with asylum issues; countries on the
eastern border were focused on refugee flows from the former
Soviet Union; only the southern tier faced the problem of
waves of boat people arriving from Africa.

Detention Camps/Human Rights
--------------


6. (C) Moscato was adamant that Italy was doing all it could
to respect the human rights of the immigrants landing on its
shores. But he did not consider immigrants who were returned
to Libya as being Italy's problem. Pisanu will discuss the
concept of detention camps located outside of EU borders next
week in Brussels; Italy continues to support creation of
these centers to take the pressure off of Italy. At the
moment, Italy was waiting for Germany to resolve an internal
debate about its position on the camps. Meanwhile, Pisanu in
a statement stressed that Libya was a signatory to the 1969
Convention of the Organization of the African Union, which
"recognizes the Geneva Convention as a fundamental and
universal instrument for granting refugee status," and that
the 1969 Convention provides for member states to co-operate
with the UNHCR. Apparently without irony, Pisanu also noted
that Libya had held the rotating Presidency of the UN
Commission on Human Rights in 2002. Moscato conceded that
Libyan officials were ill-prepared to deal with the human
rights challenge posed by these illegal immigrants, but he
reiterated the hope that the widely publicized program of
returning refugees to Libya would discourage future
immigrants and reduce the scope of the problem. In the
meantime, Italy had to "act alone" to protect its own
security and interests. MFA officials reporting on PM
Berlusconi's latest visit to Libya (reftel) echoed the same
sentiments.


7. (C) Separately, Laborcouns met with IOM Director for the
Mediterranean, Peter Schatzer, who said that he would travel
to Tripoli this week to evaluate the situation and make
preliminary recommendations on how IOM could provide
assistance in relocating refugees. Schatzer noted that Italy
provides significant funding for IOM initiatives in the
region; theoretically, this could include support for IOM
activities in Libya.


8. (C) Comment: While Italian officials would welcome
EU-wide solutions to the immigration challenge, they face
current domestic political pressure (especially from the Lega
Nord) to take firm action and have opted first for bilateral
measures, beginning with Libya. Faced with UN, NGO and
opposition criticism of its new policy of quick return, the
government is stressing its commitment to protecting human
rights and insists it is continuing to process asylum
appeals.


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2004ROME03969 - Classification: CONFIDENTIAL